Images of saints in churches increased greatly in the medieval period, candles were lit in front of them and prayers were offered to them. Lives of saints perhaps related more easily to the lives of ordinary people than the life of Christ or the Virgin. Though some of the stories now seem far-fetched, to the medieval mind miracles were proof of God’s work on earth.

Saint Eloy was skilled in metalwork. The panel shows him in a blacksmith’s workshop. A horse possessed by the devil reared and plunged so violently that Eloy cut off the horse’s leg, shod the hoof and then miraculously reattached the horses leg making the sign of the cross. The panel is full of lively detail such as the forge and smithy’s tools.